I do think there's an irony that he has gone just before we play the most out of form side that isn't us, and loads of players JDT needed are coming back to fitness. New boss will get credit for good results now though (not saying he shouldn't if results go well), probably even this one he isn't managing.

Hope that's a joke 🤣

No (though there were times he should have gone more pragmatic), we finished 7th with it. We very nearly conceded a second goal in less than 50 mins at home against a Stoke side who have done bugger all. There is still a lot of work to be done. We do look better today, but Stoke's form is as horrendous as ours and a new manager has brought us new enthusiasm as it does 90% of the time. The off field chaos has been the problem. People are naively thinking a change signals a new dawn. It won't.

Well done Pears!!!

I've also just realised that only adds up to 90% !

It doesn't make sense, because he played them plenty when they were fit. But I already pointed that out. The 'up to speed' thing was for new players. Both (wanting players to be fully fit, and time for new signings to bed in) are hardly JDT things anyway, most managers are like that. Although Mowbray would sometimes rush his faves back and get them injured again prematurely, good times.

Yeh that part has been different I guess. But when we get possession in our third we've been happy to play some stupidly risky passes. A couple of times we nearly got caught out in the first 5 or so.

Ahh didn't realise their form had been about as bad as ours.

No, that sounds way off. Maybe just because Stoke's possession is highly pedestrian so isn't sticking in the memory 🤣

No. But it hasn't been in that area too often. Stoke are poor.

Just the new manager bounce. Everyone needs to impress to be selected by someone who doesn't really know their games, first impressions count.

I bet on it days ago, but practically a token bet as the odds were 3.5!! Szmodics was 2.7, didn't make any sense to me even though I expected it. I bet on both scoring.

That doesn't make any sense, both players featured a fair bit under JDT. They just needed to be fit, something both players have had issues with.

That sounds more like two rubbish keepers than two rubbish defences.

That's what I'm saying. I'm far from convinced it's a convinced it's a candidate of appropriate quality. At least having a new manager watching seems to have put some juice in the players today. Except for Chrisene, dunno wtf that was.

Especially since we have spent diddly squat of it. Course, everyone basically knows the figures anyway.

Because it needs to be a quality appointment far more than it needs to be a quick appointment. I'm sure we could have hired the manager from the Dog & Duck in about 2 minutes. If it's not the right man it's shit appointment work, if it is, it's great appointment work. I'm sceptical for now that it's the latter.

It got us closer to the playoffs than ever before. It wasn't the style, it was the constant undermining and budget slashing from above. In terms of the manager's failing, it was a lack of a plan B.

I've nothing against GB but I'm not giving him credit for such a bland appointment (unless it works) just because it was quick.

I just think it's a very sad state of affairs that fans are reduced to worrying we won't get bog-standard John Eustace in the hotseat. I'm finding it really hard to stay invested these days. Every time optimism grows for a new dawn, Venkys find some way to fuck everything all to shit again. That's no way to follow a club, feeling like any hope you get is pointless because a fresh shafting is just around the corner. Wow, we're playing attractive football and 2nd in the league, it's happening! Oh wait, here's a godawful and embarrasing January window to ruin it. Oh, we still only missed out by a gnat's hair on the playoffs! I'm sure next season we ca- oh we've sold our best goalkeeper, replaced him with a dogshit one, sold a massively promising young CB for well below what we should, and reinvested very little of it. Ok cool. Well maybe the January window can get us back on track, keep the manager onboard and reverse our form. We also have this absolutely prodigal talent in our midfield, a Rovers fan too! We will probably get at least another year out of him and then maybe up to 30 million we can strengthen the squad with - oh fuck nevermind. We've sold him for a little over half that, and reinvested fuck all from a club record fee so that we can help out the owners, pissed the manager off enough to leave, and now we're worrying about whether a guy with a brief and very middling record joining. (I wrote all this before the appointment, I just didn't get to posting it)

Eustace isn't remotely in the same ballpark as Warnock.

Eustace will be a very uninspiring appointment. And that's very unsurprising too.

Yeh I think I'll ignore Nixon's opinion of other options being better, if he's even heard names. Didn't he say Kean was a 'gem'?

I actually got most of these right...I think it was just the waterfall one I got wrong. But no doubt I had to think about a few and they could have easily been attributed the other way. That simply shouldn't be the case. Joke of a CEO.

If this (or anything else we've heard about docs not being submitted) is true, the appeal is utterly pointless, beyond the obvious advantage of conning a portion of the fanbase into believing they 'did everything we could'. The club surely know this. Last year I think there was a case for the league being overzealous. The paperwork was submitted in time, the league took a bit of time getting back to us to point out the errors, which were minor, then they were resubmitted what was it, a couple of minutes after the full deadline? I think you can make a case, albeit one we lost. What case are you supposed to make out of 'we're thick as fuck, learnt nothing from last year, didn't send the docs in time at all and don't know the difference between save and send'? When they lose they'd better not waste club money on dragging this embarrassment out for longer again.